Toby the Teddy by Catherine Buckley and Amelia Harrison (Review)

At the beginning of this term I was lucky enough to receive a copy of Toby the Teddy by Catherine Buckley and Amelia Harrison. 

The aim of Toby the Teddy is to inform children about when and how to call for an ambulance in an emergency. This tied in perfectly with our current PDHPE focus on people who help us. 

As a lead up to reading the story we had brainstormed people in our community who help us. The most common people mentioned were policemen and ambulance drivers.

Following this I used the 'People Who Help Us' powerpoint from Twinkl to guide deeper discussion. Find it here.

I then asked my students when they thought they should ring an ambulance. It was during this activity that I realised how important this book was! Some of their responses were:

• When they fall over and cut their knees
• When a bug bites them
• When their teeth fall out on the playground (I think this came from an incident where a student fell of the monkey bars, knocked out a tooth and broke their arm. An ambulance was called that day!)
• If they feel sick in the stomach
• If they break their leg

Following this we read the story. As each scenario arose I prompted my students to tell me if they thought Toby needed to call an ambulance. I asked them to justify why they thought he should or shouldn't call an ambulance. The book provided the perfect foundation for quality discussions about when and how to call an ambulance.

Following reading the story we went back and looked at the list we had made about when to ring an ambulance. We crossed off the instances when we should not call an ambulance and added a few new scenarios about when we should call an ambulance.

The focus of the next lesson was to practise calling 000. To go with the book the authors have create a handy fridge magnet that you can record your personal details on for children to use if they do have to call an ambulance. This is a great reminder for all children. The awesome SLSO in my classroom and I then worked with each student to write down and memorise their address.

At first we used an old cordless phone in from our toy box to practise calling 000. Then I realised that most of the students in my class don't actually have home phones so we got extra tricky and practised with my iPhone. 

The follow up activities that we completed included writing about different real life experiences that my students had had and whether or not they needed to call an ambulance. They published their work using the ambulance writing frames from Twinkl (here).

While my SLSO and I worked one on one with each student to practise reciting their address my students also completed the ambulance colouring in pages below.

Overall I would definitely recommend Toby the Teddy to any parent or teacher who wants to ensure their child has a clear understanding of both when to call and ambulance and how to call an ambulance. 

Twinkl now offers an ever growing range of resources developed specifically for use within Australia. I was able to find a number of resources that related to this text and were relevant to Australian students.

Toby the Teddy is endorsed by the organisations below:

To purchase your own copy of Toby the Teddy click here. 

To see what Twinkl is all about click here. 

Disclosure: I received a free copy of Toby the Teddy and an upgraded membership from Twinkl in return for a review. All views and opinions are my own. 

How to Catch a Star by Oliver Jeffers {Space Theme}

Todays post is the first in a series detailing the ways in which classroom has grown and changed over the last few months.  As my students have grown and developed so have I. My classroom environment and teaching practices are constantly evolving in response to my students needs. It has taken me a few years of full time teaching to let go of the idea that I cannot 'divert from the program'. I've since realised that the opposite is necessary- I have to divert from the program if I am going to meet my students learning needs, keep them engaged and keep myself from getting stale in the classroom. Anyhow, enough with the waffle and on with the show!

For the majority of this year I have had a fortnightly themes, such as the zoo, magical creatures, dinosaurs (just to name a few).  With each theme I have selected different texts to use as our L3 Procedure Three texts, as well as supplementary texts for students to read independently or to be read as Procedure One texts. Our literacy centres have been loosely based on theses theme and where possible I incorporate the weekly theme into other KLAs. I have absolutely loved using this structure in my classroom. Following a theme has allowed my students to really immerse themselves in a topic. The whole class focus on a particular theme has also seen a deeper understanding when it comes to topic specific vocabulary, which is particularly noticeable in their writing.

I have had (and continue to have) many struggles with implementing L3 in my classroom. It's a teething process with endless ways of doing things, however I can without a doubt see the value of the P3 reading process.  This term I have slightly diverted from my theme focus to a text focus. Instead of focussing on an overarching theme and selecting texts in response to that theme I am now selecting a text and basing our literacy centres and supplementary texts on our main focus text.

As this week was the first week back I decided to use quite a simple text from a much loved author in our classroom, Oliver Jeffers. How to Catch a Star is the story of a little boy who would like to catch a star so that he can befriend it. There is little detail as to why the boy would like to be friends with a star and this became quite the unintentional topic of conversation between my students.

I have included my read aloud plan for the text below, with a brief writing focus following each read. In the Procedure Two section I often go back and add additional words and phrases that I explained whilst reading.  Once I have a brief overview of a writing task I use a very basic 'fill in as you go' planner for individual writing goals, whole group goals and targeted students who work with me at the jellybean table.

One of my main goals this term is to allow my students more time to develop a piece of writing and see their work through to the publishing stage. With this in mind I complete a Procedure One read on Monday, Procedure Two read on Tuesday and a procedure three read on Wednesday- following which my students complete their first draft of text related writing. Thursday and Friday are for editing and publishing. I used a great resource by Kickin' It In Kindergarten for the first two writing tasks (Find it here on TPT).

Along with our P3 read I based our literacy centres for the week loosely around the text. Each 'can do' activity included in our morning centres related to either the text or space. These activities are  allocated to groups based on learning preferences and skill levels. My planning template below gives a brief overview of the activities that are placed in each groups tub along with their 'must do's'.

Some of our activities included:

1. Design your own spaceship (this was a favourite by far)

2. Space Syllables from Fairy Poppins (here)

3. Space Invaders digraphs from Fun in First (here)

4. Researching moon facts using the iPads

My little people have written some fantastic stories about the little boy from the story going on a trip to the moon. They are currently in the editing phase and I am hoping we will reach the publishing stage on Monday. So far I am loving the new rich text focus and I can definitely see it reflected in the quality of my students work, particularly considering it's the first week back after the holidays.

Oh, and don't forget to check out my 'How to Catch a Star by Oliver Jeffers' pin-board on  Pinterest (here).

Happy Friday!
Beck xx

Twinkl & My Classroom (Review)

Wow… Term Three really kicked me in the rear end. To go along with all the normal teaching fun and games I had two ruptured ear drums, a throat infection and a good old common cold! But, I am very happy to say I survived. 

Something that has really been keeping me motivated and inspired this year is the teaching community on Instagram. This community is where I first discovered Twinkl. I've subscribed to a few different teaching resource websites over the last few years however this was the first I'd heard of Twinkl. After some quick research and a few texts to teaching friends I decided to give it a go. This brings me to this term when I was asked to write a review of Twinkl resources from an Aussie teachers perspective… My excitement was a little ridiculous! Having already been singing the praises of Twinkl to my teaching friends I jumped at the opportunity to share how I'm using it in my classroom. All comments and opinions are my own.

Displays

The first resource that I used from Twinkl was the editable floating door display. I loved how simple and easy this was to print and put together. The whole door display took me half the time as usual. If I wasn't so keen to get it up on the door I would have put it through the laminator first. Next time I'll pace myself. 

Other bits and pieces like birthday charts, that usually take a lot of preparation time at the beginning of the year, are all quick and easy to download and print. 

Developing ICT skills has been a key focus in my classroom this term. Unfortunately for most of this year my classroom has had limited access to Wifi which meant that our laptops had been packed away. I was finally able to dig them out this term and I went straight to Twinkl to find some displays to create an ICT area within my room. 

Vocabulary is so important when teaching computer literacy so I printed and laminated these posters. Velcro dots on the back make them quick and versatile to arrange. I also plan to add these ICT Area Challenge Cards to the area as a fast finisher activity.

One of our focus topics this term was Australia. We read the book Are We There Yet? by Alison Lester and followed their journey around Australia. I used the Create tool on Twinkl to make my own banner. I kept it pretty simple because I knew the display would be quite busy. It was awesome to be able to quickly and easily put together a display that was exactly what I wanted. I've been branching out into more detailed displays using Create ready for Term 4. 

As apart of this unit we also pinned up a big map of Australia which we used to find and locate the different towns and cities that we received postcards from. I used the printable Australian flag patterned letters to make this. I love it when visitors come to my room and ask how I made all these awesome displays… I almost don't want to share my secret!

Learning Centres

One of the first resources that I created this year was these sight word wands. My students use them to search for their focus sight words in our L3 texts. I downloaded the Editable Star Labels, added our sight words, printed, laminated and hot glued them onto large paddle pop sticks. 

There are also heaps (seriously, look for yourself!) of worksheets that are easy to search for and ready to print. I'm working towards paperless learning centres so I simply print my activities and slip them into write and wipe sleeves. 

Other Features

As I mentioned, the Create tool allows you to create your own resources based on your specific needs. Create is so so simple to use. I recently used it to make a banner for our Are We There Yet? display. My next project will be labelling the hot mess that that is my literacy storage room. 

Being able to save and organise resources is a huge timesaver for me. I do a lot of programming at home however I like to print at work (much better quality) something which this feature allows me to do quickly and easily. 

Being able to go straight to Australian resources is another timesaver. Twinkl are adding more and more resources that are directly linked to the Australian curriculum. 

Overall, I have been very pleased with my Twinkl subscription. Despite quickly becoming a go to website when planning and programming I still feel as though I am only scratching the surface of what Twinkl has to offer. For any teachers out there that are facing the toss up between teaching resource websites I urge you to check Twinkl out. I was knee deep in enthusiasm for this website long before being asked to review it and I will continue to pester teaching friends to check it out long after this review has been sent off into cyber space.

Check it out:

http://www.twinkl.co.uk

Beck xx

Using Spiral Dictionaries in the Classroom

Last year I ordered these awesome spiral dictionaries from Butterflies. I thought that they would be a perfect addition to our writers tool box. Unfortunately I put them in a safe place and only found them again at the beginning of this year. 

I like these spiral dictionaries because of their simplicity. The letters are easy to see and the pages are easy to flip through. Each page only includes common sight words and high frequency words so it's a great start for students who have difficulty scanning. 

To familiarise my Year One students with the dictionaries I set up a few different activities which they completed during reading groups.

Firstly I gave my students a template of a word similar to an acrostic poem and my students simply had to find a word in the dictionary that began with the given letter.

The next activity involved students searching for incorrectly spelt words that I had written on the board.  Once they had found the word they re wrote it correctly.

Once they had a handle on searching and finding I had them find words that they had circled in their writing books.  Circled words are words that they think may be spelt wrong. They then used the dictionary to correct their words.

This has become an activity to be completed once a week during reading groups, however I am finding now that they are editing their writing as during guided writing time and this extra time is become increasingly unnecessary, which makes me one very happy teacher!

Beck xx

Dinosaur Egg Observations

Last term I did a mini unit on dinosaurs and to say my students loved it would be an understatement! Dinosaurs is such an easy theme to introduce. One the best activities that we did during this unit was growing, hatching and observing our own dinosaur eggs.

I found the eggs online (eBay) and bought about 60 for less than $20 and they came like this.

I gave each student an egg and a plastic cup of water with their name on it. We made predictions about what they thought would happen to their egg (I didn't tell them there were dinosaurs inside) and then they put them in the water.

Each day they observed their egg using their five senses. I set up the table below so that they could observe their eggs easily.

They absolutely loved filling in their observation books. This was a great writing task for some of my more reluctant writers. 

 When our dinosaur eggs were finally finished growing we used our dinosaur books to attempt to work out what sort of dinosaurs we had. This was probably their favourite part! I wish I had recorded the conversations that were going on while they did their research. 

This was such a fun little experiment that filtered into lots of reading and writing activities. I'm so glad that I had a pack of 60 eggs, I'm ready to go again next year! Although I did send a few extras home for younger siblings. 

Beck xx

Staying Bright and Shiny

I love the beginning of the year- everyone is fresh, shiny and full of motivation! At this moment in time I'm full of optimism and excitement for the year ahead. 

Not so long ago I was dragging my feet through the last few weeks of term four, mentally counting the days until school holidays. My tolerance level was out the window and I was just a tad grouchy. I was ready for school holidays and so were my students. But school wasn't over yet! So onward we ploughed. 

Sometimes I think we teachers get so bogged down with ticking the boxes and getting things done that we forget to pay attention to the here and now... Celebrate the little things! So as a way of arming myself against the end of term tension I'm doing some of the following things: 

1. Positive Reminders. This gem came from my Aunt who has years of classroom experience and, to me, is the epitome of professionalism. She recognised the importance of positive communication within the classroom and how it can suffer when teachers find themselves in a rut. Sometimes for me the positive vibes definitely feel the strain towards the end of the year! So what she did to combat this was place small laminated smiley faces around her room. Everytime she noticed one of the smiley faces during a lesson she would make a point of identifying something positive happening within the classroom. According to her this had a huge impact upon not only her mood but also her interactions with her students. I'm going to use these grow mindset posters by Tales From Miss D as my positive reminders. Click here to check them out. 

2. Something personal/ from home in your room. This one is pretty obvious but I thinks it's an important inclusion. One of my favourite classroom items is a huge rainbow dream catcher that my mum bought me when I started my first permanent job. I've had some tough days and having it there to remind me that people have faith in me kept me going. And my kids love it! It's one of those classroom features that they make a point of showing to all our visitors.

3. Class photos. I take a million photos of my students to include in their yearly portfolios. Every dress up day or school event we take a class photo and celebrate just how awesome K/1 is. So this year I purchased some bright frames to display our class photos in. The idea of this is to remind myself and my students that we are a team and that we are awesome! Even when we're battling our way through a 40 plus degree day and a brown snake has just wriggled its way up the hall (this seems to upset me way more than it does them!). 

4. If all else fails put on Taylor Swift and Shake it Off. Never has my class danced it's way though this song and still felt tired or crabby. 

I'd love to hear what others do to get through those weeks or days where it's feels like your wading through concert just to get to Saturday! Feel free to share your ideas in the comments below.

Back to School #2

As I organise my welcome to school gifts for students and introduction letters to parents there's one other person on my list who needs some attention- my wonderful teachers aide! I am fortunate enough to work in a school where I have a teachers aide in my room for most of the day. She is amazing and I can honestly say that my days would be duller without her. She sharpens the pencils, supports our students, provides an extra pair of hands to tie the never ending flood of shoe laces with… the list goes on! Whether they be new to my room or not, I like to set the tone and welcome volunteers and teachers aides with a small gesture to show my appreciation for all their hard work and commitment. Last year I made up a pencil case with  some classroom essentials inside. This is especially handy for teachers aides who move between classes as they can keep their supplies with them and save time searching in unfamiliar rooms. Since I will be working with the same teachers aide again this year I wanted to make something a little different.

This jar looks small in the photograph but it's actually an old coconut oil jar. It's about as tall as a pen. Inside I have: sticky notes, a mini stapler and refills, pens, sharpies, a pencil sharpener, hand sanitizer, a highlighter and lollies (of course!). In total this cost me less that $10 (thanks to Kmart & the reject shop). 

It's always nice for everyone to start the year on a positive note.

Beck xx

P.S If you'd like a copy of this label its available to download for free via my TPT store. Click here.